How To Make French Islands

What do we have hear? Two English-speaking gentlemen in the Sixties who have a problem. They gotta find space in Montreal to have a World’s Fair, but oh man, they don’t have room! But what if they build it on the water? Haha, how would that work? Oh, they can build an island. And they did. Happy ending.

Okay, this time out, I’m a little stumped. I mean, I do remember this Canadian Propaganda Commercial, I must have seen it in my youth enough times to absorb the information. I recognized the situation and knew the solution, but apparently my mind had managed to forget some of the details.

I didn’t remember it being black and white for example. I see no reason for it to be in black and white. I mean, is it done to evoke the era? If so, you’re kinda pushing it. 1963 still had black and white television as the standard, I believe, but I don’t think anyone associates the Sixties with B&W the way the Fifties were. And anyway, we’ve had Heritage Moments set during the black and white television era that were in color. And we’ve had ones set before that which weren’t told as books. There is simply no need for this “artistic” choice. You lose points for this, commercial. Also, the music is pretty ridiculous, but probably does fit the era for all I know.

Our gentlemen solve their problem by remembering that there are subway tunnels being built, so let us use that dirt for something, shall we? This I approve of. It is a useful synergy of resources. Well done, chaps. Two birds with one stone and all that. While it is almost certain that the conversation never took place in real life as it does here, someone had that idea and that is the point we’re trying to get across. Success there.

I don’t think either of these men is identified. The first line may say the name of one of them, but I can’t make it out. (I think it is “Hey Guy, we’re supposed to be at city hall.” But I doubt that the one guy who absolutely less French would be called Guy with that pronunciation.) A mayor is name-dropped at the end, but in all, I’ve learned basically nothing about any historical figures here. I guess I learned that Ile Notre-Dame was man-made (and that it exists), which I didn’t know. But that’s it.

Anyway, I can see Young-Me didn’t bother accurately storing this one in his brain. Not worth the effort. Two out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.

Meanwhile, you know what we could all use more of? World’s fairs. Let’s get on that.

  1. I still think it should have been built underwater. I’d be like Bioshock but hopefully without all the homicidal creatures.

    • Though, being in Quebec, there would still be some homicidal creatures.

  2. You might want to look a little deeper into it. I remember that a couple of these Heritage Moments were adapted from movies (the one with Dan Ackroids and the other one with Pierce Bondsnan), so maybe the B&W wasn’t just a style choice but perhaps source material…? I don’t know. Just think about it.

    • Hmmm. You make a point, but looking “deeper into it” isn’t really part of my mission statement here. I’ll just say that it doesn’t look like a great movie either.

      • Upon further reflection (without actually referring to those aforementioned Moments), this one does seem to give a whole lot of information with just one scene of these guys. Perhaps the B&W was a style choice to make the actual Montreal World’s Fair footage more impressive and Oz-like.

        Commented: Marq (on )
        Permalinked: c69697

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